Unfamiliar room

When I woke up, I was in an unfamiliar room. Sitting up, I looked around. There was a bed with blue sheets, and a table next to it. My bag was on that table. Grabbing it, I opened and saw all the contents inside. Everything was intact. I sat back and tried to rack my memory.

Ian. Where the hell was he? Most importantly, where was I? I pulled out my phone and unlocked it. 10missed calls from Leah. What the hell. I dialled her number immediately. She didn’t answer which made me panic even more. My clothes! They were nowhere to be seen and I was wearing a blue nightdress I had never seen before. 

My heart was pounding as I tried to remember how I got there. All I could remember was leaving that white building. Shit. How did I become so stupid to trust a man whose surname I didn’t know. I had finally done it, gone crazy and made a mess of my life.

It was already ten am and I had no idea where to get clothes. I dialled the phone on the table but no one was answering. What the hell was this place? Standing up, I went to try the door. Surprisingly, it opened. I sighed. At least I had not been kidnapped. 

I decided to be brave. Grabbing my bag, I walked out of the room, only wearing the nightdress and flip flops I found there. The hallways were silent. Descending the stairs, I went to the reception. It was the same woman from the day before.

“Where are my clothes, miss?” I asked.

She shook her head. “How am I supposed to know? I’m not the one who slept with you.”

“Who did I sleep with?”

“I don’t know. You came here when you were drunk and asked to get paired with someone.”

“We both know I did no such thing. I don’t know what you’re all up to but I’m going to the cops.”

“I’m just doing my job here. I don’t know who took your clothes.”

“Okay, can you help me find some? I’ll bring them back, I swear. I can’t leave like this.”

“I don’t know you.”

“Please just help me, I beg you. I will get to the mall and buy you new ones to replace if you want.”

She sighed. “Okay, fine. Jeez, you’re so persistent.”

She disappeared and retuned a minute later with a flowered dress. She handed it to me. “It’s old. You don’t have to return it.”

“Thank you so much,”  grabbing it, I headed up the stairs back to the room I had been in. stripping off the nightdress, I checked myself for bruises or rape signs before putting on the receptionist dress. We were the same size so I was not surprised it fit well. I was almost sure noting had been done to me.

After that, I flew out of the building. I was shocked when on seeing the neighbourhood I was in. I was near the ghetto. It was a bit better than the ghetto but it was definitely the kind of neighbourhood I couldn’t have expected someone like Ian to bring me to. 

Speaking of Ian, I dialled his number. The number was non-existent.

What?” I said, trying again. My fingers were shaking as I dialled again. Same answer. My heart had picked up speed again.

When an empty taxi came around, I quickly gave him the address. “Drive fast.”

“Was that what you saying last night?” he asked.

“What?” I said.

“My bad. You just came out of the whore building. Surprised you stood in front of it proudly. Most of them stand a few blocks away.”

“I woke up in a room I don’t remember going to. I have never been in this neighbourhood before. What is about that house?”

“Oh, you don’t know. Or are you also pretending. You are all the same, you call yourselves escorts when you’re just a bunch of whores.”

I rolled my eyes. 

My phone started ringing.

“Oh my goodness, Leah. You have no idea what happened to me.”

“Actually I do. Where the hell are you? I called a thousand times. What’s going on? I know you’re not in your house. I called Jan and he checked.”

“I’m in…” I turned to the driver. “Hey, where is this again?”

He ignored me.

“I don’t care. What the hell did you do? How did you end up in brothel?”

“What? How do you know about that?”

“How do I know? The whole freaking world knows about it. We are just from a meeting about you. I don’t know where you are but you better come here asap. No one is happy.”

“What do you mean the whole world?”

“Have you seen The Blue Paper? Today’s copy?”

“I’m in the paper?”

“Get here right now.”

The blue paper was one of the most notorious tabloids around. It published the most salacious and notorious storied. Being featured on it could never be a good thing. It was always something bad. I wanted to open the internet and find out but decided not to. 

If there was bad news, I wanted to hear it from Leah when I was seated. Even if I fainted in the office, I would be safe. Fainting in a taxi, on the other hand was way too risky.

“Change of plans. I told the cab driver we are going to my work place.” I gave him the address. He grumbled a bit but continued anyway. My work place was not far away from home anyway.

The atmosphere at the office was different that day. Where there had been admiration for me during the past few days, there was cold indifference and weird stares. Everyone in the office watched as I headed to my workstation. Leah was waiting for me.

“My office,” she said. I followed her inside.

“What the hell Lilly. What happened to you? How did you end up in that place?”

“Ian tricked me. Now I’m not even sure that is his name. I’m going to try and search online. Where’s the article about me?”

“It says you’re an escort, a prostitute.”

She handed the paper to me and I quickly perused through the scandalous article written by someone named Kiera May. The words were not the worst. It was the pictures. When I saw them, I felt air leaving my body. I tried to breath and my chest started moving up and down. 

“Please don’t panic,” I could hear Leah saying as she came closer to me.